1718 in science

This is a list of significant events that occurred in the year 1718 in science.

Astronomy

• Edmond Halley discovers the proper motion of stars.^[1]

Chemistry

• Étienne François Geoffroy presents the first ever table of chemical affinity (based on displacement reactions) to the French Academy of Sciences.

Mathematics

• Abraham de Moivre publishes The Doctrine of Chances: a method of calculating the probabilities of events in play in English, which goes through several editions.^[2][3]

Medicine

• The Charitable Infirmary, Dublin, is founded by six surgeons in Ireland, the first public voluntary hospital in the British Isles.^[4][5]

Technology

• May 15 – James Puckle patents the Puckle Gun, in England.^[6]

Births

• May 16 – Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician (died 1799)
• May 23 – William Hunter, Scottish anatomist (died 1783)
• August 17 – Francis Willis, English physician specialising in mental disorders (died 1807)
• Salomée Halpir (née Rusiecki), Lithuanian physician (died after 1763)

Deaths

• March 11 – Guy-Crescent Fagon, French physician and botanist (born 1638)
• April – James Petiver, English naturalist and apothecary (born c. 1665)
• December 9 – Vincenzo Coronelli, Italian cartographer and encyclopedist (born 1650)
• December 11 – Pierre Dionis, French surgeon and anatomist (born 1643)^[7]